As of Thursday l think. The two sides are $100 million dollars apart on the new arena.
l really wonder if this turn into another Winnipeg Jets issue when it comes to that time where the team is bound to move out, because a new arena is not built.

Winnipeg in this case got it backwards. As we know. The Jets left and afterwards a new arena was built. Go figure. Again we have a NHL team once again. hmmmm

For Edmontons sake. l hope and pray to god this does not happen to The Oilers.

Just $100 million apart is something that can be taken care of by Katz, city hall and the Province should split the last bit to keep the team in Edmonton. It would be a win win for everyone. A big win for the fans and it's rich history.

EDMONTON - Edmonton isn’t going to get iconic or world-class with its new downtown arena.

Instead, if this project goes ahead, it’s looking more like the city will get something better, something our downtown really needs, an arena that won’t just be a state-of-the-art home for concerts and hockey games, but will help the downtown become much more of a people place.

The sound at City Hall on Monday was that of a cat being let out of a bag, as Mayor Stephen Mandel told a group of reporters the good news, that the architect for the downtown arena will be the Kansas City firm 360 Architecture.

“I think it’s 360, yeah,” Mandel said.

The people who built the Columbus arena?

“Yeah.”

City communications officials quickly made it known that no contract with 360 Architecture has been finalized, and nothing will happen in that regard for two or three weeks.

The official news of the day was that an American firm, ICON Venue Group, has been hired as project manager. But Mandel’s tidbit was the news that got my attention.

As important as it is for Edmonton’s new arena to be built on budget, the building’s design is the most crucial aspect of the project when it comes to Edmonton’s future, and that’s why it’s good news that 360 Architecture is either on board, or close to it.

To be worth any public investment, the new arena can’t be a walled-off fortress, like Rexall Place. Nor can it be an exclusive play palace for Edmonton’s richest citizens. Instead, the arena has to succeed at what it’s hyped to do: It must actually revitalize our downtown, not just make that boast.

It has to be more than just a commercial entity with luxury boxes, neon billboards, fancy hotels, swanky restaurants and millionaire hockey players and pop stars. It must be open, accessible, public, fun, a swirl of activity, an on-going social scene in the heart of Edmonton. Yet that is no easy task for a project built on such a massive scale.

It took North Americans many decades to figure out that arenas must not be built like Rexall Place, walls of cement closed off from the street, inhospitable, with nothing outside of the building but parking lots, stairs and ramps, no links to the community. In the last 20 years, however, architects and planners have come up with a different design concept. Few firms, if any, have been better at creating this new type of arena than 360 Architecture.....

EDMONTON - Edmonton residents can expect to see wide-open concourse levels and a rink that can be quickly converted for concerts when concept sketches of the proposed downtown arena are released later this week.

City councillors were given a preview at a hearing Monday. The presentation is being revised and will be released in full as early as Thursday, said a city spokesman.

“It was about what (ideas) they are exploring,” said Coun. Ben Henderson.

“I was fairly impressed at what we were shown as a starting point,” said Coun. Don Iveson. “There’s no doubt ICON has really solid experience spec’ing a building like this.”

ICON stressed the need to adapt lessons learned elsewhere to the Edmonton market. Concerts were brought up as an example of what’s important to this market, said Coun. Ben Henderson.

Edmonton has a history of hosting fairly significant shows, in part because Calgary’s Saddledome can’t accommodate the rigging for some, said Henderson. “Certainly it’s in the city’s best interest to continue that,” he said.

ICON also mentioned “wanting the concourse to be as open and airy as possible, wanting people to see in,” he said. There was a lot of discussion about the importance of using the arena to revitalize the area.

“That’s what we need to achieve. They are very aware of that,” said Henderson.

Loge seating, in particular, fits the Edmonton market because the city has many small businesses and relatively few large corporate head offices, said Iveson. Loge seating is an intermediate option between regular tickets and corporate boxes....

EDMONTON - Grab a beer without losing sight of the game, or buy a ticket to get a premium viewing spot mixing with media — those are two ideas illustrated in concept sketches for the proposed downtown arena released Thursday.

In the images, natural sunlight filters through large windows, while bistro bars and sushi joints offer a much larger variety of food and drink than is available to the regular ticket holder today.

In the loge seating, well-dressed fans from a small-business class drink wine and eat crab legs from tables overlooking the game.

Corporate suites would be reduced in favour of this type upscale seating, according the presentation. “An ideal location for business

and social networking, loge seating is well suited to small to medium sized corporations and avid hockey fans,” the caption reads.

ICON Venue Group, the new arena project managers, first made the presentation to city council Monday, then released it on their website Thursday.

The images give a sneak peek into what ICON thinks is important inside an arena for Edmonton. These are not renderings of the proposed design, but pictures illustrating concepts.

They don’t address the exterior of the building. The company is still negotiating a contract with the architects....

One design option is for the roof of the arena to light up at night, Katz said.

An architecture buff, Katz has been closely following all the discussion around the arena design, and responded when I asked for more details.

“The feedback on the arena design has been great,” he says. “We aspire to create an entertainment centre for the Capital region and northern Alberta and thought the oil drop might capture the spirit of what we’re trying to do. 360 Architecture came back with something that I think really celebrates Edmonton as a forward-looking and progressive city, the capital of one of the world’s great oil regions, and the home of the Edmonton Oilers.

“The design also ties into the surrounding community in a way that I think everyone agrees is very important.”

In the Columbus arena district, 360 Architecture designed Nationwide Arena with a tower that shoots a beam of light high into the sky on event nights. The lighted roof concept for the Edmonton arena would have something of the same effect. It would certainly provide a stunning visual from the sky and from Edmonton’s office towers...

EDMONTON - When a politician makes the claim that she or he has discerned the will of the people on a given issue, it’s best to be wary.

Consider the case of Coun. Kerry Diotte and his new survey of 1,329 people on the downtown arena. This week, Diotte is trumpeting the results, even though the survey was conceptually flawed and made worse by his own big mistake.

Of course, it’s in keeping with Diotte’s leanings as politician to do such a survey. Shortly after he was elected in 2010, he said his goal was to keep plugged in to the people and that he favoured plebiscites on major issues.

In the survey, Diotte asked a number of questions about whether or not Edmontonians want a new arena and about how it should be funded. The questions seemed fair enough, not slanted in either direction, but there was one problem: Diotte got out news of the survey to the online community through his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Diotte has been a loud critic of the arena deal for months now. It’s reasonable to expect that many who follow him on social media are generally like-minded. What are they going to think of infrastructure dollars going to the project? Of course they won’t like it.

Still, I figured, if others like me, who support the downtown project, also got out word, things might balance out.

But then Diotte took an unfortunate step. As the results came in, he got in touch with Lorne Humphreys of the anti-arena group Speak Up Edmonton.

After the two talked, Humphreys sent out a note to the Speak Up news group: “Hi All. Please complete the survey regarding the Edmonton Downtown Arena on Kerry Diotte’s website. In addition, please ask another 10 + people (who will say no to publicly funded downtown arena) to complete the survey. As of this afternoon, Kerry Diotte told us the results were 60 % in favour of the project at any cost and 40 %. Thanks all!”

My first thought? Wow, 60 per cent support the project at any cost! I knew the arena was popular, but not that popular.

My second thought? It’s not at all fair to conduct a survey of public opinion, then release the results selectively to an anti-arena group to fire them up to get out the vote. Kind of like salting the core samples from a gold mine to drum up investment.....

EDMONTON - The deal to build a new arena for the Edmonton Oilers collapsed Wednesday, with city councillors pointing the finger of blame at Oilers owner Daryl Katz and his last-minute demands for millions more in taxpayers money.

Stephen Mandel said it was time to send a message.

"It's wrong to hold us up for ransom," said Mandel.

"This is not a council that said, 'Don't do a deal' — but what do we do when we have a partner that says, 'We want more money, and you pay for it?" he said.

"I'm not saying we should say no to Mr. Katz, but all the information that I've had an opportunity to see does not justify council giving him another six million dollars a year."

Mandel made the comments after councillors voted unanimously to walk away from the deal agreed to last year with Katz to build the $475-million arena, starting in 2013.

Katz was not in council chambers when the decision was reached. He has been asked twice in recent weeks to meet with council in public to resolve the negotiating logjam but has refused, saying the two sides are so far apart there's no reason to meet.

The original deal had taxpayers and ticket-buyers building the rink with the Oilers spending about $15 million a year in lease payments and operating costs and keeping almost all the profits.

It went off the rails a month ago when Katz said he'd had a second look at the numbers and needed millions more, including a $6 million a year in operating subsidies for the arena.

Mandel said he can't judge the merits of the demand because the Oilers have not made their case.

"I don't know what else we do. I'm not sure where we go," said Mandel.

"Someone has to be willing to at least put information forward to justify their case.

"We need to send a message (to Katz) that you got a fair deal and stand up to that fair deal or show us why it isn't a fair deal," said Mandel.

"And I can tell you he has not shown us."

Katz officials were not immediately available for comment.

Earlier Wednesday, councillor Kerry Diotte said it's "shameful" to debate handing over money without any information from Katz.

"How can we even consider giving any tax money to a billionaire team owner when we haven't seen detailed financials. That's just not fair," Diotte said to city manager Simon Farbrother.

Farbrother said no NHL teams divulge their financial information.

Not so, said Diotte.

"In Scottsdale (Arizona), when the Phoenix Coyotes first went there, they tried to sell (the city) on doing a deal without the financials and they told them to get lost. I suggest we do the same thing."

Farbrother said the two sides have agreed to disagree on the $6 million subsidy, and that in his analysis Katz will "clearly make sufficient revenue to cover any obligations that come with operating the arena."

But Farbrother said the two sides have dug in on the issue and there's no movement in sight.

"Will we have an agreement in the next two to four weeks?" asked Coun. Dave Loken.

"In the absence of significant movement on the ($6 million) operating subsidy (by either side) we don't think you will have an agreement," said Farbrother.

"Is there any chance there (will be) significant movement on the Katz side of the table?" Loken asked.

"I don't believe we've been given any confidence in that, no," said Farbrother.

Under the original deal, city taxpayers and ticket buyers would pay to build the arena, which, with land, borrowing costs and surrounding infrastructure factored in, is now effectively at $700 million and rising.

The Oilers would keep all profits from NHL games, trade shows, concerts and other events for 11 months out of the year. The team would also keep naming rights for the building (worth up to $3 million a year), along with $2 million a year from the city for a decade for advertising.

Concession sales alone are pegged at $20 million a year.

In return, the Oilers would pay the city $5.5 million a year for 35 years and pay to operate and run the arena, estimated at $10 million a year.

The Oilers are worth about $212 million, good for middle of the pack in the NHL, and the team regularly sells out Rexall Place.

But Katz, who bought the team in 2008, has said the franchise is losing money.

He also said the city can afford his new demands because the arena will spur retail, office, and residential buildings around it that will bring in an estimated $2 billion more in tax revenues over 20 years.

However councillors were told by Farbrother that the arena will actually bring in about a quarter of that figure, $584 million, and that almost all of that money would be needed to pay off construction of the rink.

The negotiations have turned acrimonious in recent weeks, with both Katz officials and councillors publicly accusing each other of bad-faith bargaining.

Three weeks ago, Katz threatened to move the team to Seattle if the arena did not get built. He later apologized in newspaper ads after angry fans vented outrage on social media sites.

But Katz has not publicly ruled out moving the team as a last resort.

The Oilers are playing at 38-year-old Rexall Place, one of the oldest facilities in the NHL.

City council has approved the above design for the new downtown arena. While the deal still carries some risk, says reader Rhys Davies, it also has the potential of bringing huge rewards

A picture is worth a thousand words. On the Internet, it can be worth a thousand page views.

Or more than that, judging by this week’s highlights from edmontonjournal.com. The proposed downtown arena has been a fixture on the Edmonton Journal’s pages for years. The Journal’s coverage, and overall level of interest from readers, swells particularly when one of two things happen: there is significant progress on the deal, or there are new images released.

On Wednesday, Jan. 25, both of those came to pass.

The newsroom’s coverage of the city council meeting that approved a new arena deal in a 10-3 vote was delivered in a number of ways: live blogs during the meeting, a Storify page tracking the Twitter updates from our columnists inside council chambers, opinion pieces written by the aforementioned columnists, a reader comment sidebar tracking Edmontonians’ reaction, and a full slate of news stories. The whole nine yards.

Still, the most popular piece — with more than 86,000 page views — was the photo gallery of a dozen photos featuring the three different arena designs. Interestingly, at city hall, the designs were barely discussed.

The most telling way to see how the arena was the alpha story of the week might be found in the way little pieces of it spilled over into other popular stories.

Premier Alison Redford’s televised address to Albertans on Jan. 24, for instance, travelled hand-in-hand with conjecture over the missing $100 million in the arena budget, and the oft-repeated theory that the money might somehow come from the province....

There is no way Edmonton can afford to have two Rexall size venues. Edmonton isn't big enough for that, and both will suffer immensly should this come to be.

Ice hockey is the national sport of Canada in the winter months.

Australia's national sport is AFL, below is my cities population along with our to major football fields and there crowd capacity. So for Edmonton to not handle a messy 2 x 17,000 odd seat arena has go me bet